POLITICS-CUBA: Flurry of Activity Ahead of Ibero-American Summit

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 12 1999 (IPS) - Havana residents are caught up between the day-to-day grind and preparations for the ninth Ibero-American summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, slated for Nov 15-16 – the first to be held in Cuba.

The city is getting a face-lift, with swarms of workers cleaning streets, fixing up gardens and parks, filling in potholes and painting houses.

Characteristically lengthy speeches by President Fidel Castro and reports on the tension between Cuba and the United States and the history of the annual Ibero-American summits and of Latin American countries as well as Spain and Portugal have usurped primetime programming space normally reserved for the Brazilian soap opera of the moment.

Illegal dissident groups have stepped up their activity, a rare opposition protest march was blocked this week by pro-government students and workers in a park in the Havana neighbourhood of Lawton, and a Catholic priest has called on churchgoers to pray for Cuba’s political prisoners.

Castro warned Thursday that demonstrations by opponents of the regime would not be tolerated during the summit, of which he stressed the significance, stating that “if Latin Americans and Caribbeans fail to unite, they will lose their identity, their political and economic independence, and will be annexed” by the United States.

Thus, forging closer ties with Europe is of “strategic value,” as “the growth of European investment in the region is extremely important for our countries.”

The press has announced sports contests, exhibitions, concerts, plays and film festivals marking the 480th anniversary of Havana, while continuing its steady stream of reports on the run-up to the summit and the visit of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, which will include a baseball game with Castro coaching the Cuban team.

And while the visiting heads of state and government attend a gala function and pose for the routine photo-taking session Monday, thousands of Havana residents will begin to flock to the enormous “ceiba” tree that marks the spot where the city of San Cristóbal de La Habana was founded 480 years ago.

There they will await the arrival of Nov 16, and begin one by one to walk three times around the ceiba. The ritual, also a tribute to the tree held sacred by practitioners of “Santería” – the most widely practiced Afro-Cuban religion – will stretch out for hours.

“Some say they won’t allow people to gather there, because of the summit. But I believe that one thing has nothing to do with the other,” said Milagros Gómez, an office worker and Santería practitioner who goes every year to “pedirle a la ceiba” (pray to or beg from the ceiba).

Others wonder what would happen if one of the heads of state or government, on their tour through Old Havana, decides to make the traditional three turns around the ceiba, as Illinois Governor George Ryan did on his visit last month.

The presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua have already announced they will not attend the summit, in a sign of opposition to Fidel Castro’s socialist regime.

The presidents of Argentina and Chile also plan to stay away, but have clarified that their absence will not be due to any intention of criticising the Castro government.

The leaders of the two Southern Cone countries will be absent in a sign of protest against Spain’s alleged violation of a declaration signed at the previous Ibero-American summit, in Oporto, Portugal last year, according to which justice should not have an extraterritorial reach.

Chile and Argentina see actions by a Spanish judge as a violation of their sovereignty. Judge Baltasar Garzón had former Chilean dictator (1973-90) Augusto Pinochet arrested in London in October 1998, and is seeking his extradition to Spain.

The now-famous magistrate also recently issued arrest warrants for nearly 100 Argentinian military officers implicated in human rights violations committed during the 1976-83 dictatorship in that country.

Little is known, however, of the visit by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain, other than that they should reach Havana Sunday afternoon.

The inauguration of an exhibition by Catalonian painter Joan Miró and Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, scheduled for Friday, was postponed due to “a hope that perhaps Queen Sofía could attend” the ceremony, a culture ministry official told IPS.

But according to an article written by Cuban novelist and playwright Abilio Estevez for the Spanish daily ‘El País’, “Cubans, whose lives have once again become a daily battle, feel that it’s all the same whether the King and Queen of Spain or any other country visit Cuba. They have enough on their hands just trying to survive.”

In Cuba, still in the grip of a decade-long crisis, food prices remain high, the dollar lords it over the peso, a number of essential items can only be purchased in dollars, and many people are dependent on the remittances sent from family members abroad.

Nevertheless, free and universal access to health services and education and policies linking economic development to social development give poverty here a very different face from that which is seen in the rest of Latin America.

“Poor but upright and honest,” went the saying a few decades ago in this Caribbean nation. Today, many foreign visitors to the island say they are astonished by the dignity with which Cubans bear their burden of poverty.

While the poorest of the poor often live in overcrowded houses virtually collapsing around them, with no drinking water and an enormous task just putting food on the table everyday, they also benefit by a range of foodstuffs like rice, sugar and grains sold at subsidised prices.

And unlike in most Latin American nations, in Cuba it is not easy to find homeless or illiterate children who must work for a living or resort to prostitution to survive.

The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 1999 Human Development Report ranked Cuba fifth on the list of developing countries with the lowest levels of poverty, after Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Costa Rica.

Minister of Economy and Planning José Luis Rodríguez said Wednesday that 1999 would be “a good year for the Cuban economy.” He forecast economic growth of between five and six percent, up from the initial projection of 2.5 percent.

Vice-President Carlos Lage, one of the chief architects of the economic reforms that began to be implemented in 1993, said Monday that “within 15 years, we will have a stronger, better organised and more just socialist system in Cuba.”

But Cardinal Jaime Ortega maintains that “there are few among us who can even conceive of the future,” and that sense of desperation can easily lead to drug use, alcoholism, escapism and the desire to brave the hazardous journey across the Florida Strait.